235 Self-assessment in annual board statements.

The other aspect of external board accountability is the board’s and the supervisory board’s account of their decisions and supervision as provided in their respective annual statements.1 In my view, the development towards social and ecological corporate governance increasingly relies on the board to self-assess the impact of its decisions on its social and ecological environment and to reflect on the implications of such an impact.2 Instead of relying on external auditors to assess the legitimacy of board interference with external interests, the complexity of the circumstances in which modern corporations operate requires an internal form of self-assessment and accountability of board interference.3 As discussed earlier, I argue that the supervisory board has a specific responsibility to monitor such self-assessment and to reflect conscientiously on the normative implications of board decisions for social and ecological interests.4

In order for external stakeholders to evaluate such self-assessment, I argue that both the executive board and the supervisory board need to account for their self-assessment and conscientious reflection in their annual statements that are disclosed as part of the annual report. Such conscientious reflection in the annual statements of the board and supervisory board would build on and extend the existing best practices in the Dutch Corporate Governance Code.5 Although such statements may rely heavily on the specific circumstances in which the corporation operates, some references to universal and comparable standards seem to be necessary for the possibility of external evaluation by stakeholders, civil society and in ultimate situations the Enterprise Chamber. I have therefore identified a twelfth and final issue for further research related to such a need for comparable self-assessment.6